


it’s obvious that my heart beats for you

by gingermaggie



Category: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, F/M, I guess? I don't know how to phrase it, basically everything is the same except greek gods exist and are mentioned, nathaniel and rebecca both repress lots of feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 00:39:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14273133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingermaggie/pseuds/gingermaggie
Summary: If anyone Nathaniel knew was going to get cursed by the gods, of course it was Rebecca Bunch. And of course her loser of a fiancé wasn’t going to do anything to help her. Now Nathaniel’s stuck going on some stupid quest to break the curse.Not because he likes her, or anything. Just because she’s missing work, and he needs someone half competent in the office again. Definitely not because he likes her.





	it’s obvious that my heart beats for you

**Author's Note:**

> First, I must note that this fic absolutely would not exist without the opinions, encouragement, contributions, brilliance, support, love, and enthusiasm of the incomparable [Mairead](http://call-me-maib.tumblr.com). Seriously. All the thanks and heart eyes to you. Also, credit for the general story premise to [this Tumblr post](https://thebluestgansey.tumblr.com/post/172808314755/nerds-are-cool-if-youre-struggling-for-au-ideas).
> 
> So this is set somewhere past late season two which, along with season one, progressed largely the same as canon excepting the fact that Greek gods are real in this universe, and sometimes meddle in mortals’ lives. It’s chill. Don’t worry about it. 
> 
> Anyway, the only big change (again excepting the gods) is that the Santa Ana winds didn’t trap Nathaniel and Rebecca in the elevator, so they didn’t kiss, and Rebecca and Josh are still set for a two-year engagement. Assume that we’re a couple months past the point where the wedding was going to take place in canon and that R and N have still had some more bonding and Harry Potter discussing outside of an elevator setting. Alright. That’s what I’ve got. Carry on. 
> 
> \---
> 
> Title from “So Obvious” by Runner Runner

If anyone Nathaniel knew was going to get cursed by the gods, _of course_ it was Rebecca Bunch. That woman attracted more trouble than Zeus attracted dubiously consenting sexual partners. Okay, well, maybe not _more_ , but it was a close thing. It was genuinely more surprising to him that it had taken her this long to catch some negative attention from Olympus than that she had caught some in the first place.

It was also kind of surprising that she seemed so unconcerned about it.

She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bed, hugging a stuffed alligator to her chest, very conspicuously Not At Work.

Which was, of course, the only reason Nathaniel was here. It wasn’t like he made a habit of showing up at his employees’ homes at two p.m. on a Thursday. He had _things_ to be doing. He had _meetings_. This was a total inconvenience. Nothing more than that.

“How did this even happen?” he asked. He’s honestly not even sure he wants to know.

Rebecca let out a long-suffering sigh. “Oh my gosh, it’s like, not even a big deal, she _totally_ overreacted.”

As far as Nathaniel was concerned, that seemed like a sort of stupid thing to say about a literal god who had literally cursed you. But, he guessed, it was Rebecca’s prerogative to get double cursed if she wanted to.

“She being whom?” he asked.

“Aphrodite,” Rebecca said in her best _duh_ voice.

“Ah,” he said. Of course.

Rebecca shifted again, hugging her alligator closer, a dreamy look flooding her face. “All I said was, goddess of love or not, she had nothing on the true devotion and adoration that is my relationship with Josh.”

Nathaniel smirked, but something about it felt plastic. “And somehow the goddess of love took offense to that? So weird.”

“I know right?” she said, completely missing the bait. “Anyway, I’ll be back at work in a few days, don’t get your panties in a twist.”

“Uh-huh,” Nathaniel said, unconvinced. “And the slandered goddess of love will release you from your bedroom just because…she believes you’ve learned your lesson?”

“I will remind you,” she said, voice prim as anything, “that I have a deeply loving, _rewarding_ relationship with my _fiancé_ , the man of my dreams, Josh Chan.”

“Yeah, it’s come up.” Nathaniel rolled his eyes, letting them land on her bedside table instead of back on her. It was only irritation with her inanity that made him unable to meet her gaze when she talked about Josh. Totally just that. “I don’t see how that has anything to do with _this_. Besides the fact that your oh-so-beautiful relationship _caused_ this whole mess.”

Rebecca let out a huff, clearly frustrated that he couldn’t read her mind. “Josh is going to break the curse, _obviously_ ,” she said. “That’s how these things work. True love’s kiss, you know?”

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “You actually think a kiss is going to magically fix all your problems? How old are you, again?”

Another huff. “Not a kiss _necessarily_ ,” she grumbled. “It’s just an example. The true love is the point. It’s not like this is my first curse.”

It really should not be easy for Rebecca to surprise him at this point, but she still has a knack for managing it.

“Are you serious?”

She shrugs, ticking off on her fingers. “Nemesis cursed me in high school, when my rivalry with Audra was really hitting its peak. Pan cursed my entire firm in New York after we won this case against a nature preservation society, that was a fun couple weeks. I think Hermes cursed me once but I can’t remember why. Oh, and Hera gave me this super-bad UTI.”

Nathaniel grimaced. “Please tell me you didn’t sleep with Zeus,” he said.

Rebecca actually made a gagging noise. “Oh, fuck no. She was just pissed at me for run-of-the-mill adultery and sleeping around. Your typical desecration of the sanctity of marriage, nothing crazy. I have no interest in whatever dusty immortal junk Zeus has to offer. Yuck.”

“You really have no sense of self-preservation, do you? It’s alarmingly clear to me why you get cursed so often, you’re _actively_ insane.”

She swatted at him, but it felt good-natured. “You’re the one who asked,” she pointed out. “I was just adding clarifying detail. I’m basically a godly curse expert by now.”

“I guess I have to believe that,” he said. He paused, but he couldn’t help asking, “And your true love with Josh solved all those problems? I thought you guys only started dating recently.”

Immediately she was on the defensive again. “Well, no, I solved those other ways. Gosh, Nathaniel, true love isn’t the _only_ way to break curses. It’s just the _best_ way, when you have it as an option. Which I _do_ ,” she added, like he’d forgotten. Or like she had to keep reminding herself.

“Uh-huh,” he said. “Right. Well, you’d better be in the office bright and early Monday,” he said. “Plimptons don’t give sick leave, but I guess I have no choice but to make an exception for the gods’ least favorite mortal. You better figure this out quick, Bunch.”

“Of course, boss man,” she said in her weird old-timey voice, somehow approximating a curtsey from her cross-legged position.

Nathaniel rolled his eyes, hiding his smile as he turned to leave.

Of course Rebecca fucking Bunch would get cursed. By the goddess of love no less. Leave it to her. At least Prince Charming could swoop in to rescue her by Monday.

~

Except on Monday Rebecca still wasn’t in. Nathaniel had resisted the urge to text her and check in all weekend because—well, why would he? They weren’t the texting sort of friends. They weren’t really even friends at all. And he had no reason to believe she would have any trouble breaking the curse.

Still, he had wanted to. Text her, that is.

For professional reasons.

When he left work that evening, he found himself driving back to her house without really thinking about what he was doing, or how stupid it was. He didn’t let himself doubt the intelligence of his actions until he was at her door and knocking, and then he very badly wished he had just gone home.

Rebecca’s mildly terrifying roommate Heather answered the door. She stepped back to let him in, but immediately crossed her arms across her chest, apparently to show how unimpressed she was with his entire existence.

“What,” she said, her tone so flat it made him wonder whether she even meant it as a question.

“I’m, uh—” Nathaniel realized his reasons for coming here were sketchy at best. He could only play the _hardass boss checking in on missing employee_ card so far. “Rebecca wasn’t at work today.”

Heather rolled her eyes. “Yeah, godly curses will sometimes do that to you,” she said. “Bye now.” She stuck a hand on his chest and started pushing him towards the door. Before he could protest, they both froze at the sound of Rebecca’s voice, floating out from her bedroom.

“Heather? Is that Josh?”

Heather’s mouth was pressed into a thin line, and she shot Nathaniel a look that made it clear she would murder him slowly if he said a single word. “No, it’s just—a textbook I ordered!” she yelled back.

Nathaniel’s brows pulled together and he leaned in towards Heather, pitching his voice low. “Is Josh not here? I thought he was coming to—break the curse, or whatever.”

Heather narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you care?” she asked. “And don’t say it’s because she’s not at work, you asshole,” she added, stabbing an accusatory finger at him, cutting off his kneejerk response.

Nathaniel sighed. “I’m…worried about her,” he admitted, feeling his hand twitch as he said it. Heather raised an eyebrow. “I…care about her,” he added, the words dragged out of him. His face felt hot, but Heather just nodded.

She looked more agitated than he had seen her, the few times he had seen her before. Which still wasn’t a lot, but it was something. Maybe that’s why she took his answer at face value and didn’t send him away.

“Look,” she said. “Here’s the deal. Josh _was_ here, alright? Rebecca called him when the curse first hit, and he came over the next day. I was out on the porch waiting for him, to let him in, and I saw his car pull up…and then just keep driving. Dude’s expression was freaked.” She glanced towards Rebecca’s bedroom, like she was afraid the other woman would overhear. “I don’t think he’s coming back. At all. And I think she knows that. He’s not answering her calls and texts, and she just keeps pretending things are fine. Honestly, I have no idea what to do.”

Nathaniel’s heart sank further and further down in his chest the more Heather spoke. There was no way Rebecca wasn’t completely devastated. And there was no way she was ever going to admit she was.

“Can I talk to her?”

Heather hesitated, but after a moment she shrugged. “Whatever. You’re both grownups. She’ll kick you out of she wants to.”

With that, she retreated to her bedroom, and Nathaniel made his way back to Rebecca’s.

He knocked on the doorframe, and let himself in at Rebecca’s cheerful call of “Enter!”

She blinked when she saw him. “You’re not Heather’s textbook,” she said.

He gave her a nervous smile. “No. I, uh, came in behind the textbook,” he said.

If she knew he was lying, she didn’t give any indication. She also didn’t say anything.

“I was just. Uh. Checking on you.”

“Right,” Rebecca said. “Well. I’m here. Check away. I’m still cursed, if that’s your question.”

He gave a short huff of a laugh. “Yeah, I figured.”

She gestured for him to sit, and he perched uncomfortably on the edge of her desk chair. For a few minutes, they made awkward small talk about the work she had missed and the clients that she needed updates on and the upcoming meetings she would need to be back for.

There was no good lead in, so finally he just brought up the curse point blank. “What does Josh have to do?” he asked. “If it’s not a kiss specifically, what’s the protocol? I assume she told you.”

Rebecca nodded. “It’s a quest,” she said. “Standard stuff. Scavenger hunt style, from what I can tell, probably some trekking through an enchanted forest to start. A couple days’ work. Josh is completely on board; he’ll be here any minute now.”

Nathaniel hesitated. “Will he?” he asked, and hurried to continue at Rebecca’s flinch. “I mean, you’ve talked to him? He’s said he’s coming? It’s just been a few days now, and—”

“Of course he’s coming!” she said, too sharp. She grimaced at her own tone and pressed on. “I’m sorry for the delay, I really am, but I just have to wait for Josh to get back, and then he can—”

Before he even knew what was happening, the words were out of his mouth. “I’ll do it.”

For whatever it was worth, this might have been the first time he’d seen Rebecca Bunch well and truly caught off guard. She stared at him, mouth open, eyes wide, as astonished as she might have been if he’d suggested they had sex right then and there. Not that he would ever suggest that. Ew. Of course not. That was the farthest thing from his mind right now.

One short moment later, she’d recovered. “No, don’t be silly,” she said. “That’s completely unnecessary.”

He still couldn’t believe he’d said it, but once he had, it continued to make perfect sense. “No, really,” he said. “Why not? It’s not like it’ll be hard. It’ll take me a day, tops, and then we can move on. No big deal.”

“Josh will totally be here soon,” she insisted. “He’s just really busy dealing with some other stuff. So don’t worry about it, I’ve got things _completely_ handled.”

“That’s stupid, Bunch,” he said. “It’s a waste of company resources to keep you lounging around here day and night waiting for him. Did Aphrodite _say_ it had to be Josh, or are you assuming because she’s the love goddess? I can handle it just as well as the muggle.” Better, probably, but he was trying to get her to agree, so he’d hold off on the fiancé-insults for a bit. “So is it explicitly Chan-only, or not?”

“Well…” she hesitated. “No, but—”

“Perfect,” Nathaniel cut her off. “So I’ll just do it, and it’ll take me like five minutes, and then you can get back to _work_ and stop wasting everyone’s time. Okay?”

She fixed him with a calculating look. Eyes narrowed. Head tilted. The works. Finally, she held out a sheet of paper and said, “Okay. I can—tell Josh that he doesn’t need to rush with his other commitments. Give it a shot.”

He took the paper and looked at the single sentence written on it.

_Through the woods and Into the Woods._

“Do you have any idea what the hell this means, or am I just supposed to wander around in the enchanted woods until I die?” he asked.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “No one is asking you to do this, Plimpton,” she reminded him. For a second, her totally-fine facade shifted and faltered, and it was suddenly all too clear that she was less confident in Josh’s devotion than she would ever let on, especially to him.

“I know,” he answered, too quickly. “Obviously I’m going to do it. I’m just checking.”

Her expression softened a little. “Thank you, Nathaniel,” she said, and the sincerity in her voice was so raw he had to look away.

“It’s nothing,” he said.

He could tell she didn’t agree, but thankfully she didn’t push it.

“I think the scavenger hunt has to do with places that are important to me,” she said, returning to the safest possible subject. “The second part, _Into the Woods_ , that was the last show I got to see in college, so I’m thinking the next part will be in the theater at Harvard.” She explained this quickly, in the tones of someone who had spent most of the weekend puzzling the situation out. “But you’ll have to go through the woods to get there, so magical transporting woods, because gods and magic and all that good stuff. I’m betting the starting point will be one of the trees in that park that Darryl and WhiJo are always talking about, you know the one? I had a thing there with Greg once, so that’s part of my, you know, mysterious past, or whatever.”

Nathaniel nodded, trying to keep track of everything she was saying. “I know the place,” he said.

“Well,” she said. “Then, cool.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Cool.”

And she smiled, and that really was cool.

After that, it was really the easiest thing in the world. He called Darryl and told him he’d be out of the office for a few days, packed a bag, and started off on his quest first thing the next morning.

Simple. No big deal at all.

~

“Nathaniel! Nathaniel Plimpton the third!”

Nathaniel wasn’t sure where the voice was coming from at first. He’d found the magical portal tree in the park without any trouble, and when he walked through it he’d found himself in a large, dense forest. Impressive as it was, there was a clearly laid out path, and he was having no trouble following it. He’d been traveling for a couple hours, alternating between walking, running, and jogging, and he’d stopped to take a rest and eat the lunch he’d packed. He was leaning up against a tree, slowly working through his protein bar and carrot sticks, and he absolutely had not seen anyone coming down the path either way.

“Nathaniel!” the voice called again, and this time it was very clear that it was coming from a rabbit standing not two feet away from him. A talking rabbit.

“Ah, geez, what the hell?” Nathaniel said, kicking halfheartedly at the tiny, sickeningly adorable animal. There was clearly something less than natural about it, and he was not in the mood to get rabbit herpes.

The rabbit was undeterred, its voice gratingly enthusiastic. “I’m here to help! Apparently if I help you with your quest, I can break my curse, too!”

“What the hell,” Nathaniel said again, this time less a question and more an expletive.

“Come on, don’t you realize who I am?”

It took a minute for the dots to connect, but finally he identified the voice. It was that annoying guy from the office, the one he kept firing and rehiring. Why couldn’t he remember his damn name? Geoff, or something.

Nathaniel groans. “Of course _you’re_ here. Why the hell are you a rabbit?”

The rabbit’s nose twitched. Nathaniel didn’t know a rabbit could look irritated, but somehow Gerald—or whatever—was pulling it off.

“Hel- _lo_ , the wrath of the gods, obviously. I guess I accidentally hit on one of Artemis’s huntresses, and she cursed me. Oops! It is _so_ frustrating, especially since her brother’s curse still hasn’t worn off me.”

This caught Nathaniel’s attention. “Huh?”

Somehow, the rabbit rolled its eyes. It was…deeply unnerving. “You _remember._ Apollo cursed me last year, made it so no one would remember my name? Because he didn’t like the song I was singing in the breakroom.”

Nathaniel shrugged. “That seems fair to me, ah…” He tried to conjure up a name but came up short.

The rabbit gave a disgruntled hop. It didn’t really give off the vibe he probably meant it to. He mostly just looked excited and cute. “George, dammit! My name is George!”

“Sure, whatever you say,” Nathaniel agreed. He’d already forgotten again. “You’re lucky she didn’t have her huntresses kill you, rabbit boy,” he added.

The sigh he let out was unnerving coming from a rabbit. “You know that’s not my name.”

Nathaniel got up and brushed protein bar crumbs off his pants. “You know I definitely don’t care,” he said, and it wasn’t like the rabbit could argue with that.

~

Nathaniel kept thinking about the fact that he’d gone a solid thirty-one years with his life generally undisturbed by the gods, only to have that perfect track record dramatically wrecked over the course of a few days. He felt like he was in a damn Disney movie, off on a quest to save a damsel in distress with a talking animal sidekick and everything.

Not that Rebecca was a damsel in distress, not really. Even though she seemed desperate to be cast in that role, Nathaniel couldn’t help thinking that she didn’t need anyone to take care of her or rescue her or save her. She did a good job of that herself. She knew how to handle things herself. And though she had plenty of friends ready to line up and help her—even himself, he had to admit, though she might not call him a friend in return—she was capable of more on her own than she gave herself credit for.

But she didn’t give herself the chance to be the hero in her own story, so here he was, trekking through the woods with Glenn the fucking rabbit, on his way to slay some figurative dragon.

Seriously, the entire quest wasn’t even that complicated. The rabbit was overkill in itself. There were no monsters in the woods to fight, no puzzles to solve, no witches to outmaneuver. No gods showed up to put roadblocks in their way. Gavin felt more like a fundamental piece of the fairytale Rebecca expected than something reality required.

But Nathaniel wasn’t her Prince Charming Chan. So the fairytale was already unraveling.

“…and so that was the day that I decided I would go to medical school! Which, obviously, didn’t pan out, so you know the story isn’t over yet—”

Also unraveling: Nathaniel’s patience with his animal companion.

“Gary!” he snapped. “Shut up before I fire you again. I can’t even hear myself think.”

“Sorry, boss!” the rabbit chirped.

Nathaniel pinched the bridge of his nose. It felt like they’d been walking forever. He’d known it wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world to break a godly curse, but he didn’t realize it would be enough to drive him to homicide.

Gus the damn bunny had been keeping up an endless stream of chatter, giving Nathaniel the migraine of his life. If the actual purpose of the quest was to see how long it took for him to lose his damn mind, they were probably nearing the finish line.

They continued on in silence for a few minutes, but it wasn’t long before Giovanni was humming under his breath, which—again, very unnerving coming from a fluffy rabbit.

“For fuck’s sake, _shut up_ ,” he snapped. “This is why Apollo cursed you, George.”

There was a beat of stunned silence, and then the rabbit started hopping in delighed circles. “You said my name! You said my name!”

“What?” Nathaniel asked, blinking. “No I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did!” George said, and suddenly, without a flash of light, without any fanfare, he was human again, beaming, as annoying as ever. “You broke my curse!”

And then he blinked out of existence.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Nathaniel said, running a hand through his hair. “Alright, that’s _completely_ fine. I’ll just continue on my quest _without_ my singing animal sidekick. Dick.” Not that he’d really wanted him around. But still. It was the principle of the thing.

The words were barely out of his mouth when he was startled by the shrill tone of his phone ringing. He stared at Rebecca’s name flashing on the screen for a long moment before he answered.

“You know, somehow I wasn’t expecting to get phone calls in this magical forest,” he said.

On the other end of the line, Rebecca let out a nervous laugh. “That’s because you’re not the curse expert in this pairing, remember?” she said, too light, her tone overblown as ever.

Nathaniel waited, but she didn’t say anything else for a few long moments. “Rebecca?” he finally asked, pitching his voice as gently as possible.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m still here,” she said, too loud, too aggressively normal. “I just, um. Wanted to check in. On—the quest. You know. Totally normal reason to call.”

“Rebecca,” he said, feeling his stern boss voice coming out. He tried, a little too late, to reign it in. “I’m—I’m fine here,” he amended. “I’ll have this finished up in no time. This curse has nothing on me.” He winced at his own awkwardness.

“Yeah,” she said. “Sooo, about that. I didn’t actually tell you about the _other_ part of the curse.” Her voice was rushed and embarrassed.

There was a moment of silence while he processed that. “The other part,” he said, flat.

“Yeah,” she said again. “So like—part one. The quest. That’s on your end.” A nervous laugh. “And I’m…”

She was silent long enough that Nathaniel felt obliged to supply the answer for her. “You’re stuck in your bedroom,” he offered.

He started walking again, slowly, shuffling his feet forward more than anything.

“There’s slightly more to it than that,” she finally admitted.

“Just spit it out, Bunch.”

He wished he could see her expression. He had enough trouble accurately reading her when she was right in front of him, and her voice, all alone, unmitigated by a borderline workplace-inappropriate outfit or an eyeroll—or anything, really—left both too much and not quite enough to the imagination.

“Part two is me being stuck in my room,” she agreed. “And part three is—have you ever heard of dream ghosts?”

Silence stretched across the phone.

“Uh, that would be a solid no,” he said. “Dream _what?_ ”

Rebecca’s voice was super casual again, bordering on frantic. “They’re nothing to worry about, really. Just, like, they’re figures from my past coming back as semi-translucent apparitions to teach me life lessons about my past relationships and my self growth and stuff. Honestly, half the time they seem like hallucinations more than anything, but they also seem like they might be actual magic? It’s kind of vague, but I guess it’s more interesting that way.”

Nathaniel ran a hand through his hair. “Are they—are you okay? Do they—attack you, or something?”

“What? No. They’re just—annoying. Like, Fake Teenage Josh from summer camp shows up and tries to break up with me again, and Fake Greg appears and goes on about how badly I hurt him and, like, whatever. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before.” Her chipper tone belied her honestly heartbreaking words, but if Rebecca hated one thing, it was setting herself up for pity. “I’m serious, it’s completely survivable. Heather just said I had to tell you. For full transparency, or whatever.”

To Nathaniel’s ears, the dismissal didn’t ring true at all. She sounded—well, truthfully, she sounded fucking exhausted. Like she was trying so hard not to fall asleep.

“Huh,” he said. “Well—thanks for telling me. You know. For transparency.”

“Of course,” she said. “Whatever helps…the quest.”

Nathaniel had continued to walk along the path as they spoke, and as the conversation reached a lull he realized he could see a break coming up in the trees, light pouring into the woods unfiltered by leaves.

“Look, I see the edge of the forest right up ahead, okay?” he told her. “I’m almost onto the next part. I’ll be back before you know it, and the—the dream ghosts will fuck right off. I’ll make sure.”

He closed his eyes, praying his voice didn’t sound as painfully tender to her as it did to him. Praying he wouldn’t scare her too far back into her armor.

Not that he—whatever.

“Okay,” she said, soft. “Thank you, Nathaniel. Really.”

He smiled, oddly relieved that she couldn’t see. “Any time,” he said.

Neither of them said goodbye before the line went dead.

~

As he stepped out of the treeline, Nathaniel’s vision flickered momentarily. For a split second, he thought he was walking out into city streets—New York, maybe? Then for an instant, it was a crowded bar. Both faded before he really saw them, though, and he found himself in a wide open field. The sky above him was a deep, soft blue, and as far as he could see were bright red flowers. The scene was oddly…familiar.

“ _The Wizard of Oz_?” he said aloud. “Really?”

He’d never really liked this movie as a child. Something about the flying monkeys, probably. Or the way all the characters who were missing pieces of themselves found them, and he’d never been able to relate to that.

He shoved the thought away. This was stupid. He wasn’t going to fall victim to a plot point from some dumb kids’ movie.

He started walking through the flowers, immediately overcome with a deep, uncharacteristic desire to take a nap. He ignored it, of course, pushing through another twenty feet. Then another thirty. Another forty. Until he was about to fall over.

 _You don’t have time to nap,_ he reminded himself. _Rebecca needs you._

A beat.

_And, you know. Naps are for children, the elderly, and weaklings. You’re a man._

But it wasn’t his dad’s disapproving expression that jolted him back awake each time his eyes drifted shut. It was Rebecca’s face. Gaze downcast, focused on her bedspread as she stubbornly pretended Josh was coming to save her. Glaring at him when he was being a dick. Chasing him around the conference room with a pen. Wide-eyed, soft, surprised, when he told her that he liked Harry Potter. She…he needed to stay awake. He needed to finish this quest. For her.

Shit.

The longer he walked, the harder it was to keep his eyes open. And the more images of Rebecca his mind conjured. Laughing, leaning across Paula’s desk as she conspired with the other woman. Her hand brushing his as they both reached for the coffee creamer at the same time, sending a chill up his arm. Wowing clients with her charm or her knowledge or her skills of persuasion, every time. Smiling at him. Smiling at… _him._

 _You know, you don’t have to be so perfect all the time, Plimpton_ , she’d told him once. _It’s…okay to take some time for yourself. Regardless of what…other people might say._

He’d waved her off at the time, gone back to running too fast on his treadmill, but the words swirled now in his delirious mind. For a second, it was like she was standing in front of him, hands bracing his arms. His eyes closed, and he would swear he felt her smooth his hair down, rest her hand against his cheek.

 _Nathaniel,_ he heard her whisper. _You can sleep. It’s okay. We have time_.

“Rebecca—”

 _Shhh._ Her fingers brushed his lips, and he swayed dangerously towards her, eyes still shut. _Take a nap_.

He leaned toward her again, more intentionally, opening his eyes, and she vanished like a puff of smoke. He kept falling anyway, landing in the flowers, instantly asleep.

~

He woke up to the sound of his cell phone ringing.

“What the hell?” he groaned, sitting up.

Some spiteful part of him wished he felt groggy or disoriented, but he honestly felt—better. More refreshed than he had felt in a very long time.

He answered the phone without really looking at the screen. “Hello?”

“Nathaniel?” Rebecca’s voice was panicked, and way too far away.

Instantly he was leaping to his feet, like he’d be able to run to her. “Rebecca? What’s wrong?”

She let out a shuddering sigh. “Hi,” she said. “Hi, sorry, I just—shit, it was just a really bad dream vision. I didn’t mean to—I just reacted.”

Nathaniel tried to calm down his racing heart. “It’s fine,” he said. “It’s—what happened?”

Rebecca’s tone was flat, humorless, drained. “Can I be honest with you?” she asked. “Dream ghosts fucking suck.” There was a pause. “I mean—I wasn’t lying before when I said they weren’t that bad,” she added, earnest. “They—they weren’t at first. But then—my dad…Robert…”

Nathaniel didn’t respond. He took a deep breath, waited her out.

“My dad is—an asshole. Textbook case. Doesn’t love me.” A ragged breath. “Never has. It’s—tough, to revisit. I haven’t—wanted to admit it to myself. Fuck, Nathaniel. Why doesn’t he love me?”

It was like getting shot in the chest. “Rebecca—”

She pressed on like he hadn’t even spoken. “And Robert—you don’t even know who Robert is. No one knows who Robert is, because I lie about it constantly.”

Rebecca’s voice was stabilizing, growing stronger, growing louder, but the path it was hurtling down seemed as dangerous as despair. Like a runaway train, Nathaniel didn’t know how to stop it. Like a runaway train, he would have thrown himself in front of it to help her, and he didn’t know why.

“He was my professor in undergrad and I—I loved him. I loved him so much. I really thought we were going to be together forever. I really thought—I _always_ think—”

And just like that she was sobbing. Aching, tearing, choking sobs that felt like knives in Nathaniel’s ears. He felt helpless, listening to her cry, trapped in some other dimension while she suffered alone. Where the hell was Heather? Couldn’t she hear this from the other room? Why wasn’t she helping?

For a horrible moment, he felt like he was ten years old. He was ten years old, and his mother was in trouble, and he couldn’t help her. No one could help her. No one was even trying. His heart tried to claw its way up his throat.

“Rebecca,” he said, but she didn’t hear him. “Rebecca!” he said, again and again, until finally he broke through and she whispered, “What?”

And then he didn’t know what to say.

His mouth opened, and closed, and before he knew what was happening he heard himself say, “I think you are the strongest person I have ever met.”

There was a soft, dull thump, like she’d dropped the phone onto her bed, then a heavy silence. A rustling noise, and she was back.

“Look, I—I have to go,” she said, sniffling loudly.

“No, Rebecca, you don’t—”

“Sorry to bother you. Fuck, I’m so—embarrassed. I didn’t mean to break down. I just…wanted to talk to…someone.”

He couldn’t bring himself to ask the questions swirling in his mind: _Why not Paula? Why not Heather or Valencia? Fuck, why not Josh?_

It was like she heard him anyway. She took a loud breath. “No, that’s not true,” she confessed, like she was trying to beat him to the punch of calling her out. “I wanted to talk to _you_.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that. “Okay,” he said.

“Come home soon, Nathaniel,” she said, soft.

“Okay,” he said again, and of course he had no way of knowing if she smiled, just a little, before she hung up. But it felt like she did.

~

It almost seemed to Nathaniel like years had passed by the time he made it through the rest of the idyllic nature scenes laid out before him to the location of the second clue—or whatever you wanted to call it. He felt, somewhere deep inside of him, like he was an entirely different person.

Just as Rebecca expected, Nathaniel found himself in a theater. He couldn’t be positive it was at Harvard, but it seemed like a fair enough assumption. A huge banner hung along the back of the stage, reading TRENT?! in bold, capital letters. Underneath that was a blown up image of a man with crazy eyes and a wild, enthusiastic smile that was, uh, _terrifying_. Nathaniel didn’t know if it was an ad for a play or what, but it was super unsettling.

Almost on autopilot, he pulled out his phone and called Rebecca.

“Hey,” she said, sounding surprised, but a lot more collected than the last time they spoke.

“Hi,” he replied, warmth spreading through his chest. “I’m gonna need some context for the oversized picture of this insane person named Trent.”

Rebecca let out a short laugh. “Oh, trust me, you do _not_ want to hear about that,” she said.

Nathaniel grinned. “Try me,” he challenged.

So Rebecca told him all about Trent and his transition from unnoticed college admirer to fake boyfriend to pseudo-stalker to well and truly out of the picture. The story she told was difficult, and upsetting, but she told it with a humor and distance that made Nathaniel’s whole body relax, because she sounded—safe. Like she felt safe.

Nathaniel was sprawled out on the steps of the auditorium, and despite it all, with her voice yammering on his ear, he felt safe, too.

“Wow,” he said when she finished, eyes wandering up to the stage, and—this quest was seriously the weirdest, most inconsistent, utterly _confusing_ mess Nathaniel had ever seen. Second maybe to the woman who’d gotten him into the whole thing. He’d wandered through the woods for who knows how long, and now the piece of paper with the next clue was just there on the middle of the stage, waiting for him.

“Hey,” he said. “I just found another clue. Wanna help me solve it?”

Rebecca made a noncommittal sound low in her throat. “Ooh, I’d love to, but I’ve got a thing. You know how it is; places to go, people to see.”

“Dick,” he said, fond.

“My boss is a real hardass, you know, I gotta be at work by ten or he loses his mind…”

“I swear, Bunch, if you’re not in by eight a.m. the day after I break this curse—”

Her peals of laughter cut him off, and once again he was glad she couldn’t see how wide he was grinning.

~

They’d barely hung up and he was barely on his way to the next clue when his phone rang. Again.

“You know, Bunch, this curse is never gonna get fixed if you keep calling me every other minute,” he said.

“Well, I see you’re _very_ hard at work, aren’t you?”

Nathaniel’s blood ran cold. “Sir, I can explain—”

“There’s nothing to explain, Nathaniel,” his father said, deceptively calm. “It’s my understanding that your so-called star lawyer, that Bunch woman, hasn’t been at work in days. And now here you are, traipsing after her into an unnecessary little vacation without a care in the world, leaving your…firm—if it can even be called that—in the incapable hands of that Whitefeather buffoon.”

“Pop, I—”

“I’ve had enough of this nonsense, Nathaniel. Get back to the office immediately. And if that woman isn’t back by tomorrow, fire her.” He paused a moment, letting his words sink in. “I am very disappointed by your actions.”

The line went dead.

Nathaniel took a sick, heaving breath. Then another. He crouched low to the ground, trying to catch his breath.

Why had he thought he could get away with this? Why had he ever believed his father wouldn’t do anything he could to wreck the only good thing—to control every little piece—to make him _so fucking miserable_?

Hands trembling, he unlocked his phone again.

A few rings, and then—“Nathaniel? Did you find another clue already?”

“I’m—” he couldn’t get anything else out.

“Nathaniel?” she sounded worried. “Hey, Plimpton, what’s up?”

“My—my father—”

Why couldn’t he get the words out? Why couldn’t he breathe right? He was fine. He was Nathaniel Plimpton III, and he was—

“Are you having a panic attack?”

No. No way. Plimptons didn’t get sick. Plimptons didn’t take naps. Plimptons didn’t have anxiety attacks.

“It’s okay, Nathaniel, it’s okay. Just breathe. Put the phone on speaker. Put the phone on speaker and set it down, okay? And breathe. Lift your hands above your head, it’ll help. Are you breathing? Okay, good. That’s great, you’re doing great. Now look around you and count five things you see. You can do it out loud or in your head. Great, you’re doing great.”

Was he talking to her? Was he saying things out loud? He wasn’t sure.

“Now focus on four things you can hear. Awesome. You’re doing awesome. How about three things you can smell? Can you smell three things? Great! Now—”

“Rebecca,” he said. His vision wasn’t swimming so much anymore. He felt—grounded. “Thank you,” he whispered.

There was a long silence. He imagined her closing her eyes, taking a breath in relief. “Of course,” she said.

“I’m fine now,” he said. “I just—needed a moment.” He hesitated. “My father called. He’s—not happy with me. But I’ll deal with it,” he said. He really did feel better. He had a lot of experience repressing interactions with his dad. And Rebecca had…helped. A lot.

He could tell Rebecca wanted to say something about what had just happened, but she settled on, “Okay.”

“Okay,” he agreed.

There was another long silence before she spoke again. “This might not be the best time,” she said. “But—I have to tell you something.” She didn’t wait for a response before pressing on. “In the spirit of transparency.” He heard her suck in a breath. “Josh isn’t coming back.”

Nathaniel hesitated. He was inclined to agree, but it seemed cruel not to attempt some level of comfort. “He still could,” he said. “Just because he didn’t drop everything to take on the quest—”

“Like you did?”

Nathaniel’s breath caught. There was no accusation in her voice, no anger. She almost sounded…warm. It was disorienting, all things considered.

“Josh isn’t coming back, Nathaniel,” she said again, and she didn’t sound okay, exactly, but she sounded—resigned. “He—he sent me an email. He’s done. We’re done.”

It takes a moment to process, because of all the _ludicrous_ things Josh Chan has done—

“He sent you an _email_?” he heard himself ask, incredulous. “That’s another level of fucked up.”

Rebecca laughed, and it sounded teary. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, it really is.”

Nathaniel rubbed his eyes. “I’m sorry, Rebecca,” he said. “You…you deserve better than that.”

The pause that followed was uncomfortably long. Finally, she said, “I’m gonna go. Call me when you find the next clue and we can talk it out, okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Will do.”

“Bye,” she said, and hung up.

Nathaniel took a deep breath. He closed his eyes.

He felt—like he missed her. Like he wanted nothing more than to be by her side again, where he could tell her everything was going to be okay and she could tell him the same thing. Like—like glitter was exploding in his chest.

Wait…this—this feeling. No way. There was no way that he felt—that he—

“Oh, fuck,” he said.

~

Nathaniel worked his way through the next few clues on autopilot—they were straightforward enough, leading to dream ghost versions of her childhood home, the West Covina Taco Festival, Whitefeather and Associates, a very specific street corner in New York whose meaning was lost on him, and scattered locations related to her parents and her time in law school.

The whole time, though, he felt like he was just going through the motions, moving from point A to point B with tenacious Plimpton efficiency but no real connection to his actions. All his thoughts were occupied with the genuinely unfortunate and insurmountably inconvenient realization that he was in love with Rebecca Bunch.

It didn’t help that every so often, his phone would ring with a call from the woman herself, and he’d find himself falling into conversation after conversation with her—deep, soul-baring conversations, nothing either of them would have touched with a fifty-foot pole just days before.

Something about this curse, this quest, was fucking with his head.

Either that, or Rebecca Bunch had well and truly gotten to him.

~

Nathaniel was tired of this quest. He was tired of never ending paths, of ghost locations that he didn’t understand and never would, of the way it was melting his heart and changing his perspective on the whole damn world.  

A rabbit appeared from out of nowhere, hopping along beside him.

“Really?” he asked. “Again?”

“Really,” the bunny agreed. “Again.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “I wish I could say it’s good to see you, George, but it really isn’t. How does this keep happening to you?”

He turned to the rabbit as he spoke, only to find a man there, looking startled, but not immediately disappearing this time.

“You know my name,” he said. “You, like—actually sincerely know my name!”

Nathaniel shrugged. “You made an impression last time,” he said. “For better or worse, I remember your name now. So why are you still here?”

George looked down at himself. “I guess the rules for this curse are different. I have to do something else to break it.”

“Well, good luck with that,” Nathaniel said, pushing ahead on the suburban street that was his current path.

“Wait up, boss!” George called, hurrying to keep up.

Sighing, Nathaniel stopped and turned to the other man. “Look, George, I’m a bit busy right now, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Helping Rebecca,” George agreed, sounding unconvinced, or—unenthusiastic?

Nathaniel shot him a look. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

George’s nose twitched like he was still a rabbit. “I’m just saying,” he said, putting his hands up in a protective gesture. “She’s kind of…weird. And unprofessional. And I thought you didn’t even like her that much.”

“Why would you think that?” Nathaniel asked, before he could stop himself. “I mean—it doesn’t matter. I’m here, and I’m finishing the damn quest. I’m almost done, anyway.” He dropped his gaze to the slightly crumpled clue in his hand.

_The way to what you want is the way to go._

“I’m not sure what it means,” Nathaniel said, feeling defensive. “I haven’t asked Rebecca about it yet.”

“It doesn’t seem that complicated,” George said, peering at it. “ _The way to what you want is the way to go_. We need to go that way. The way to what you want.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “No, the clues are about Rebecca,” he said. “Not me.”

“Does it say that? You’re the one on the quest, so you’re the one reading the clues. You’re you.”

“I—” He didn’t have a response to that.

George shrugged. “C’mon, it’s worth a try,” he insisted. “So what do you want?”

Nathaniel looked down at the paper in his hands. His chest felt tight. The words that pressed against his tongue felt too honest, even in their simplicity.  “I want to see Rebecca,” he said.

And then suddenly there she was. George was gone, and he was standing in her room, the same spot he’d been however many days ago, and she was sitting cross-legged on her bed holding her stuffed alligator.

“Nathaniel!” she said, startling at the sight of him.

Before he could react, she was launching off the bed and into his arms, and they were—hugging.

He closed his eyes as he held her close, breathing in deeply.

“Hi,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.

“Hi,” he replied, low, brushing hair out of her face as she pulled back.

“I guess the curse is broken now,” she said.

“I guess so.”

Neither of them moved. Finally, Nathaniel asked, “Do you wanna get out of here?”

Rebecca lit up. “You have no idea,” she said. “Lead the way, knight in shining armor.”

~

Heather had a shift at Home Base, so she wasn’t there to see Rebecca’s triumphant exit from the confines of her room. An uncharacteristically exuberant Nathaniel made up for the lack of audience with suitable applause and even a tiny bit of cheering. From there, they went outside, where Rebecca rejoiced in the taste of fresh air, and then to Nathaniel’s car and apartment, because she insisted she couldn’t go back to the confines of her house just yet.

She filled the short drive with off-key singing and smiles, and Nathaniel loved her so much his chest hurt.

_Josh Chan is a fucking moron._

Before long they were at his apartment building, and Rebecca became more and more subdued the closer they got to his door.

“I have one more thing to tell you,” she blurted as soon as they were inside. “In the interest of transparency.”

He met her eyes, and her gaze was searching. Piercing. It felt like the sort of emotionally charged moment she always turned casual, turned into a joke. But she didn’t.

She was so, so calm.

“Aphrodite told me…she said the quest could only be completed by someone who loves me.”

Nathaniel went very, very still.

When he didn’t respond, Rebecca began to get the exact sort of flustered he’d expected in the first place.

“And I—I know I should have told you, but I was so surprised when you volunteered and I didn’t know what to do, and then you were on the quest and I thought I must have misunderstood something, because of course you didn’t, you don’t, you wouldn’t—” she cut herself off abruptly, turning away from him and wringing her hands. “It’s not—I’m not expecting anything from you. Please believe me, I’m not…” she trailed off. “I just…she was very clear.” Rebecca looked at him, terror and something like anticipation shining in her eyes. “Romantic love only. No exceptions.”

Slowly, deliberately, Nathaniel took a step towards her. He couldn’t take his eyes off her face, even when she dropped her gaze again, agitated. He didn’t move any closer. He couldn’t. He waited. Then in one swift motion she had his face in her hands and she was pulling his mouth down to hers.

She kissed him deeply, desperately, for one too-short moment, and then she pulled back before he could really respond.

Her hands slid down his neck and back to herself, and she looked everywhere but at him. “I—” she said. “I—I—um—”

Nathaniel pulled her back into him and kissed her, hands sliding into her hair, head spinning. She kissed back with enthusiasm, but pushed him away again too quickly.

The words tumbled out of his mouth. “I love you, Rebecca.”

She froze.

“I—I thought you didn’t believe in—in love, or commitment,” she said.

“So did I,” he said, kissing her again.

“Wait—wait,” she interrupted, with clear reluctance. “I just—I need clarification. What is this? What are you doing?” She looked so broken, so cautious, and regret swirled in his gut.

“Rebecca,” he said. “I know I’ve said—a lot of negative things about…relationships, and commitment. I’m not going to pretend I haven’t. But I’m also not going to pretend I’ve felt this way before.”

She looked up at that, looked into his eyes.

“I’ve never felt this way before,” he repeated. “About anyone. And I know you just broke up with Josh, and I understand you might need time—I understand you might never feel this way about me, but now you know—where I’m…at,” he finished lamely.

“Nathaniel,” she said, and then they were kissing again.

~

They didn’t have sex. They didn’t even really kiss that much more. They could both acknowledge that it wasn’t the best time. Not when she was so freshly single. Not when they were both so emotionally drained. Not when his bed was so warm and soft and perfect to cuddle up in and take a nap. Once she wheedled her way into convincing him to take a nap with her.

“You know, I’m pretty sure you were supposed to learn more lessons about me from the different locations,” Rebecca said, snuggling closer into his side. “About the development of my views on love and stuff.”

“Huh,” he said. “Yeah, I got nothing from those places,” he told her, frank. “I was barely paying attention to anything except getting through the quest and getting back here.”

 _To you,_ he didn’t say.

“But honestly, I can’t imagine Aphrodite could have given me more intel than I got from you during the _dozens_ of phone calls—” he started, and she swatted his arm.

“You loved those phone calls,” she countered, and it wasn’t like she was wrong.

He leaned over and kissed her quickly. “I did,” he said, too serious. “I always prefer getting my information directly from the source, anyway.”

Before long he could tell Rebecca was drifting off towards sleep. He felt a surge of relief when he realized there would be no dream ghosts haunting her this time. And if Aphrodite—or any other god—did decide to fuck with her again, he’d be there to take care of her. To help her take care of herself.

It wasn’t perfect, obviously. She’d only just escaped being engaged to Josh Chan, and both of them had a lot of room for improvement and self growth. She also hadn’t said she loved him yet, but that made perfect sense. They had time. They had lots of time, and he was willing to wait.

He was pretty sure they were going to give the goddess of love a run for her money. But at least he knew better than to vocalize it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! It’s been a wild ride.
> 
> Come hang out and gush with me on Tumblr! I’m [thebluestgansey](http://thebluestgansey.tumblr.com)!


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